Dennis Prager Show - ADF Fights the Free Speech Zones Battle
Aired: 2020-10-16
Duration: 05:29


=== Speech Zones Controversy (05:22) ===

[00:00:00]  businesses, having people rate it on the racist scale.
[00:00:05]  The assault on American freedom by corporations is a first in American history.
[00:00:18]  you.
[00:00:19]  And you don't need the government to suppress freedom when you have all of this being done.
[00:00:27]  Somebody's fighting it.
[00:00:29]  Defending Freedom, ADF. Here's a case from a college that I need you to hear about that they are taking on.
[00:00:39]  David Cortman is Senior Counsel at the Alliance Defending Freedom.
[00:00:45]  David, welcome to the Dennis Prager Show.
[00:00:48]  Thanks for having me on.
[00:00:49]  Tell us about this case of this Christian student.
[00:00:54]  Yeah, it's remarkable.
[00:00:56]  So people hear that universities are supposed to be the marketplace of ideas.
[00:01:00]  Here, this student, Chike Uzubunum is his name, was basically sharing in his faith in this college outside of Atlanta, Georgia.
[00:01:08]  And they have speech zones.
[00:01:10]  You've got to get permission to speech.
[00:01:11]  And these speech zones are less than 1% of campus.
[00:01:14]  You have to get permission in advance.
[00:01:17]  And you have to show them your materials.
[00:01:19]  It's basically, you know, nearly impossible.
[00:01:21]  He gets permission and they shut him down anyway because they didn't like what he was saying.
[00:01:26]  They didn't like the fact that he was sharing his face with other students.
[00:01:30]  Help me out on this first part.
[00:01:34]  There are free speech zones.
[00:01:36]  What is the name of this college?
[00:01:38]  It's called Georgia Gwinnett College.
[00:01:41]  Is it just a small private college?
[00:01:44]  No, it's a large public college.
[00:01:48]  It's a large public college.
[00:01:50]  That's right.
[00:01:51]  Yeah, okay.
[00:01:52]  And this is a Christian student.
[00:01:55]  I assume from his name he is from Africa?
[00:01:57]  Yes, that's all correct.
[00:01:59]  Okay, so he wants to, on campus, speak to fellow students, presumably about Christianity.
[00:02:08]  Is that correct?
[00:02:10]  Right, that's right.
[00:02:12]  Okay, so I want to understand.
[00:02:13]  We'll get to the Christianity aspect in a moment.
[00:02:17]  What if I want to speak to fellow students about UFOs?
[00:02:23]  Am I constrained to speech zones?
[00:02:26]  I don't understand what renders you able to speak only in a speech zone.
[00:02:35]  Well, the reality is whether the school officials like what you're saying, because obviously students are walking around talking and speaking all the time.
[00:02:44]  It's only applied against someone who they don't like what they're saying.
[00:02:48]  And if you would imagine the size of a football field is the university, the speech zone is the size of a piece of paper.
[00:02:54]  That's the scale to show how limited these free speech rights are on these public campuses.
[00:03:00]  Right.
[00:03:04]  I'm trying to understand it fully because it's so unbelievable to me and to my listeners.
[00:03:11]  So if you want to say, I hate racism, are you confined to that piece of paper?
[00:03:19]  Well, you are unless they don't enforce it against you, and that's been one of the problems.
[00:03:24]  So not only do they have these policies, but they pick and choose who they enforce it against.
[00:03:29]  And one of the aspects in the case was there's other people that are always talking about various issues, and nobody's prohibited from doing so.
[00:03:37]  He was speaking, didn't even know there was a speed zone.
[00:03:40]  The school officials came out and said, no, you can't speak here.
[00:03:44]  You've got to go to these tiny little speed zones.
[00:03:46]  So that's the problem.
[00:03:47]  It applies to everyone on paper, but they only enforce it against those who don't want to hear their message.
[00:03:53]  So he was merely preaching on behalf of Christ, correct?
[00:04:04]  That's right, and handing out some flyers to those who wanted them.
[00:04:07]  Exactly right.
[00:04:08]  You know what would be a very interesting test, I wonder if it could be arranged, is to see if a student at the university spoke on behalf of Islam what they would do.
[00:04:23]  Yeah, and there's been other speech taking place, because he's on campus, obviously, all the time he was on campus at that time.
[00:04:30]  And he would say, look, there's always people speaking about various issues, and no one comes to them and says, hey, you're not in a speech zone, make sure you go over here.
[00:04:38]  And so that's the point of picking and choosing your favorites and getting rid of the rest.
[00:04:43]  Right, but it would be a great test.
[00:04:46]  Do you know for a fact that others can...
[00:04:50]  Can speak on behalf of what they call progressive causes and not be harassed?
[00:04:56]  Yeah, and the reason we do is it's happened before.
[00:04:59]  And so, you know, the point of it is that you have the...
[00:05:02]  And no one's aware of these speed zones.
[00:05:04]  Let's just start with that.
[00:05:04]  Because you assume when you go to a public university that you're paying for and you're a student who's required to be on campus for your classes...

=== Help the Fighters (00:21) ===

[00:05:11]  Oops, I'm sorry.
[00:05:12]  Anyway, hold on.
[00:05:14]  I'm sorry about the interruption, but I have to interrupt you anyway.
[00:05:18]  To remind you folks, They are taking on this case, the Alliance Defending Freedom.
[00:05:23]  There is a banner at my website to help them.
[00:05:26]  If you don't help the fighters, the fighters can't fight.